This past May 3rd I was selected to audition for the TEDxSMU conference. This gave me the opportunity to present for the first time a collection of design ideas that I think are a very cost effective way to address the problem of housing and living conditions of the poor. For this problem I tested my philosophy that solutions to problems can many times be found by connecting things together in a new way.
Now just imagine... 80% of humanity lives on less than $10/day. If you are part of the world's lowest socioeconomic level you may live on a house that can barely be called that. It's a collection of sticks, cardboard, plastic sheet. A dirt floor, no water, electricity or sewage.
In 2009 I had the fortune to travel to Tulancingo, Mexico to visit one of the work sites of the organization Un Techo Para Mi Pais (A roof for my country). This is an organization that provides housing for families in Latin America that live like this. In one weekend they can build a sturdy plywood one-room house using what I call American-style construction methods.
These houses are spartan: 4 walls, a floor and a roof. But they completely change the lives of the families that live in them. I still remember the faces of the families that had just received their new houses and the pride they had when they showed them to us.
In 2010 I learned of a challenge to the world's design community to present a design for a house that would cost less than $300 to build. Many very interesting designs were proposed, but I could not help noticing that one of the winning designs was very similar to the houses that Un Techo Para Mi Pais has already made a reality.
Now, I am an engineer, and I tend to focus on the details. While the challenge is now over, I believe that there were shortcomings in the designs in that they only took into account the structural aspects of the house and not the entire quality of life. So I asked myself some questions: Where will they cook? Where will they go to the bathroom? Where can they store milk, meat? For many of these questions the answer was a hole in the ground outside. Thus, while these families have solved a basic need of shelter, but they still have other basic needs to have a minimum quality of life. You know what happens that once you become aware of something you start seeing a lot more of it. Thus I started a search for solutions everywhere. An one by one they started to appear.
An organization called Helps international has designed a cinder block stove called the ONIL stove that is used extensively in Guatemala. It is an incredibly efficient stove that requires 70% less wood to cook, it is relatively easy to build and low cost. The materials used are simple construction materials. What is unique is the design, specifically the simplicity of the design. The families that have this stove can have it inside their house and the need to collect or buy wood or coal is significantly reduced.
Now to the problem of food storage. Turns out that in India an inventor designed a refrigerator that works with no electricity. It is made of ceramic and cools via water evaporation. It will extend the shelf life of perishable foods 1 or 2 days. Now you may say that does not sound very much. But when you have to walk one hour each way to go to the store and this may allow you to cut back trips to the store from every day to every other day your life is changed. And again, the solution was simple design. No fancy technology, solar panels that can break and cannot be replaced.
Then to the last piece of the puzzle. During the recent screening of TEDxChange a designer from IDEO told the story of the creation of the "easy latrine", a simple solution to the challenge of how to manage human waste. This is a product now used in Cambodia and it is a great story on how to do product design that truly involves the communities that will use it. It is again simple, easy to build and low cost.
Now think of this as a package: House design from Mexico, stove from Guatemala, refrigerator from India, latrine from Cambodia. Simple, low cost, effective and proven global design solutions that do not require exotic technology but that combined can dramatically improve the quality of life of people around the world.
The SXSW Interactive “Techie” Awards
South By Southwest Interactive conference is over and it is now the time to do a recap. This year we have decided to give awards that recognize the true highlight experiences of the conference.
6. The Time Machine Award: Thanks to the amazing new technology showcased at SXSW, the first experience of the conference was a trip back in time, to experience what a conference registration was in the mid 1980’s, complete with small pencils and green sheets of paper. I can still feel the graphite on my fingers. One wonders what they will do with this technology next year. Perhaps they will take us back to the day when we could not connect our laptops to the internet wirelessly.
5. The Night Owl Award: The number of parties that claimed some sort of relationship to SXSW came close to exceeding the number of conference sessions.
4. The See and Be Seen Award: The Startup Village at the Hilton Hotel was the see and be seen place of SXSW
3. The Spring Break Bikini Contest Award: The myriad of official and unofficial startup quick pitch events became the equivalent of Fort Lauderdale’s bikini contests
2. The snake oil peddler’s award: Some events claimed that for a small fee they would connect entrepreneurs with VC’s. They used secret discount codes, “#VCSecrets” hashtags, last minute texts and change of venues to make it seem that they were some sort of exclusive club. They were a colossal waste of time.
1. Most memorable product from SXSWi: “Poo Math” an Android app from Kayac Inc. showcased at SXSW’s trade show. It is a unique and original way to teach math to your kids. This is the text from an example
“Steve can’t hold his poo any longer. His house is 3 m away, and to get home in 5 minutes, at least how many meters per minute should he go?”
